Yo, ere me now!

Esat founder Denis O’Brien continues his march through the Caribbean, this time rattling the cages of Guyana incumbent CG&T.

O’Brien’s Digicel mobile operator, whose footprint now extends across the Caribbean from its Jamaican base, with over 5.7m subscribers, has claimed it will become Guyana’s leading mobile telecoms provider within six months. O’Brien said that Digicel already has almost a 50% share of the market in the South American country, which is bordered by Venezuela, Suriname (where Digicel also operates) and Brazil, and that it is poised to become the dominant player.

O’Brien has criticised CG&T, which has a monopoly on international calls in the country, saying customers are being “ripped off” by the prices they’re paying.

CG&T’s chief executive Joe Singh has dismissed O’Brien’s comments, saying that the Irish entrepreneur is "blissfully unaware that GT&T has consistently articulated its preparedness to work with [the] government to realise sector liberalisation".

The criticism is unlikely to deflect O’Brien, who in just seven years has swept across the tropics like a hurricane, battering all in front of him and continually harrying Digicel's competitors.

While the awarding of a GSM licence to O’Brien’s Esat Digifone consortium in 1995 by Minister for Transport, Energy & Communications, Michael Lowry, remains a controversial and contentious issue, Digicel has been hard, but rapid graft all the way.

It's an empire created from inauspicious beginnings.

When Irish middle managers first arrived in Kingston, Jamaica, in 2000 to establish the business, they were afraid to go outside their hotel during their free time due to the level of violence in the capital.

Despite its relatively small population of 2.7m, Jamaica is a world murder capital. In 2001 there were over 1,300, mostly gang-related murders. And you thought it was bad in Ireland.

Those Digicel managers had a tough time of it. One was mugged at knifepoint on the island days after arriving, while another group of Irish staff returned to where they were staying to find they had just missed seeing their landlord being shot dead. Miami soon became the destination of choice for Irish lobsters keen to avoid becoming nasty Jamaican statistics. The Irish staff initially found it difficult to deal with their Jamaican counterparts too.

"We’d ask: 'Can you do it?'" remembered one Irish Digicel executive. “They’d say: 'No problem, I can do it.'”

“Then they do something which isn't right or more likely, they just do nothing because they are not sure what to do."

But obviously the lines of communication eventually improved.

While a flotation of Digicel had looked on the cards, O’Brien instead raised money this year by selling $1.4 billion worth of bonds, buying out minority shareholders and in the process netting himself a cool $800m. He now has full control of the group. Others to benefit included former Fianna Fáil press secretary and election spin meister, PJ Mara.

Digicel has also extended its reach into the Pacific, while it has previously eyed the US market and O'Brien has also had tilts at licences in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. And the rampage isn’t finished yet.

Digicel has just launched in El Salvador, and O’Brien believes there is further markets to be exploited in the Caribbean, such as the Bahamas, and the British Virgin Islands.

O’Brien, meanwhile, has moved his residency status from Portugal to Malta – boring, but tax efficient, no doubt.

Can you ere me now?!

http://www.digicelgroup.com/group/

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_business?id=56531309

http://www.cellular-news.com/story/26892.php

http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2007/02/18/story21110.asp